Is your organisation or (social) enterprise passionate about young people taking control of their own future?

Call for Proposals

The Entrepreneurship Grants aim to provide support to youth actors that work on strengthening the economic opportunities for young people!

The Entrepreneurship Grants provide grants opportunities for 30,000 EURO for which individual youth organisations and consortiums of youth organisations can apply to.

What do we mean with supporting economic opportunities of young people?

The entrepreneurship grants focus on youth-led actions that address a three-fold selection of key challenges young people face around the world in their economic participation and taking control of their own future:

  1. Access to skills development opportunities that are according to the needs of young people and local economic realities and support the start-up of new youth-led enterprises.
  2. The responsible growth of youth-led (social) enterprises that consider social and environmental boundaries.
  3. An enabling environment for young entrepreneurs to start and grow their business.

During this grant call for proposals the focus will be on the second topic: The responsible growth of youth-led that combines its social or environmental mission with income-generating activities.

We ask interested youth organisations to submit their ideas to advance responsible growth of their social enterprises in order to sustain their social entrepreneurship objectives for young people and their organisations.

What can you expect when you receive a grant?

  • Your organisation will receive financial support to implement your social enterprise project with young people in your own community and beyond.
  • Your organisation will become part of a platform for you to share your solution with peers, decision-makers and other stakeholders across Africa and Europe.
  • You will benefit from mentorship and other forms of capacity development support according to the needs of your organisation.

When is your organisation eligible to apply?

  • Your organisation must be a non-profit, operating as a Trust, Community Based Organisation (CBO), or as a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO)/Civil Society Organisation(CSO) or Cooperative with a clear social/environmental mission. The social enterprise activity exists to sustain and advance that mission, not as a side business.
  • Your organisation must be youth-led: young people (aged 18-35) represent the organisation’s governance and have primary decision-making power over the organisation’s direction and programmes (100% is aged 18-35) and are directly involved in designing and carrying out activities (>80% is aged 18-35).
  • Your project must youth-led: all staff (100%) working on implementing the project should be young people (aged 18-35).
  • Your organisation is formally registered in your country, has an organisation bank account, a clear governance structure and has been operating for at least 12 months.
  • You can show evidence of community programmes and revenue-generating activities.
  • Income-generating activities: you run a trading arm or enterprise with income that supplements donor support and contributes to financial sustainability of the organisation.
  • Social/environmental impact: you can demonstrate measurable impact (jobs for youth, improved livelihoods, affordable services, environmental gains). You have at least basic systems for tracking and reporting results.
  • Profit use & reinvestment: all or most surpluses are reinvested into the mission or scaling of the enterprise. No private shareholder payments of profit.
  • You are located and registered in one of the 12 African Youth Action Lab focus countries: Ethiopia, Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia (Somaliland region), Tanzania, Tunisia, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
  • Your proposed activities take place in one or more of the above 12 countries.

What kind of activities can you propose?

Your proposal can have a diversity of activities that build upon each other. We are excited to receive your ideas!  –  Activities can take many forms depending on the social enterprise venture that you wish to grow.

In your proposal, describe the activities you plan to implement and explain how they are linked to your goals/objectives, and the involvement of young people. There is no fixed formula: you are free to design activities in the way that best fits your project, as long as you show clearly how they contribute to the growth of your social enterprise.

While the Entrepreneurship Grants are broad in their focus, please note that the following types of organizations or activities are not considered eligible for this grant:

  • Purely for-profit SMEs whose social impact is incidental or token
  • NGOs that are entirely donor funded with no enterprise activities
  • Idea stage projects with no operational trading track record

How to apply

APPLICATIONS FOR THIS GRANT IS NOW CLOSED. 

We will communicate on results soon.

For questions on this grant, please refer to the FAQ below, if your query is not found below, please email:  entrepreneurship@aueuyouth.com

APPLY NOW CANDIDATE-SE JÁ POSTULEZ DÈS MAINTENANT

Webinars

What is the AU-EU Youth Action Lab & what are Entrepreneurship Grants?

Learn more about this grant type and how to create your consortium by registering to one of the following webinars:

Missed our webinar? View past presentation here: Resources

Need help with your application? Join our webinars in November for Question-and-Answer sessions (dates to be confirmed very soon)!

Want to connect with other youth organisations and stay up-to-date on the latest info about the grants? Sign up to our online community on the Power to Voices Platform in two steps:

Step 1: Sign up to the Power to Voices Platform by making an account: Sign Up Here

Step 2: Go to the AU-EU Youth Action Lab Community and click on ‘follow’ to become a member of the group, via this link: AU-EU Youth Action Lab Community | Power to Voice

Consortium partners:

FAQ

Need help on how to submit your application? View our guide here.

Applicants are invited to first refer to the Funding Manuals for each grant type and carefully read the Call for Proposal Text and any related documents published on the Youth Lab website. Questions, likely to be relevant to all applicants, can be found in this regularly updated document, classified by themes.

FAQs for Entrepreneurship Grants

All Youth Action Lab grant types are created by youth and for youth. This funding addresses the lack of opportunities for youth in Africa and Europe to collaborate, cooperate, develop, implement and scale up their own initiatives. It is designed to support young people to be more engaged, empowered and connected. The grant aims to nurture organisations’ stability, resilience, financial security and organisational capacity with the result aimed at showing impact created at community level with a distinct scale-up potential.

Entrepreneurship Grants focus on youth-led actions that address a three-fold selection of key challenges young people face around the world in their economic participation and taking control of their own future i.e. skills development opportunities, responsible growth of youth-led social enterprises, and an enabling environment for young entrepreneurs.

During the second Call for Proposal in 2025, the focus will be on the second topic: The responsible growth of youth-led social enterprises that combines its social or environmental mission with income-generating activities. We ask interested youth organisations or social enterprises to submit their ideas to advance meaningful skills development opportunities for young people!

This grant will also allow you to meet grantees from the three other grant types at the Annual Link & Learn events and through the Power2Voices online platform! Some more good news? Our application and reporting mechanisms are designed in a way that make sense to youth initiatives. Read the full for more information.

To apply for Entrepreneurship Grants, your organization must meet the following requirements:

  1. Your organisation must be a non-profit, operating as a Trust, Community Based Organisation (CBO), or as a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO)/Civil Society Organisation(CSO) or Cooperative with a clear social/environmental mission. The social enterprise activity exists to sustain and advance that mission, not as a side business.
  2. Your organisation must be youth-led: young people (aged 18-35) represent the organisation’s governance and have primary decision-making power over the organisation’s direction and programmes (100% is aged 18-35) and are directly involved in designing and carrying out activities (>80% is aged 18-35)
  3. Your project must be youth-led: all staff (100%) working on implementing the project should be young people (aged 18-35)
  4. Your organisation is formally registered in your country, has an organisation bank account, a clear governance structure and has been operating for at least 12 months.
  5. You can show evidence of community programmes and revenue-generating activities.
  6. Income-generating activities: you run a trading arm or enterprise with income that supplements donor support and contributes to financial sustainability of the organisation.
  7. Social/environmental impact: you can demonstrate measurable impact (jobs for youth, improved livelihoods, affordable services, environmental gains). You have at least basic systems for tracking and reporting results.
  8. Profit use & reinvestment: all or most surpluses are reinvested into the mission or scaling of the enterprise. No private shareholder payments of profit.
  9. You are located and registered in one of the 12 African Youth Action Lab focus countries: Ethiopia, Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia (Somaliland region), Tanzania, Tunisia, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
  10. Your proposed activities take place in one or more of the above 12 countries.

Yes, the focus of the second Call for Proposals is on the responsible growth of youth-led social enterprises that combines its social or environmental mission with income-generating activities. If your idea is to scale ideas related to this, you are welcome to apply!

No, any other idea on entrepreneurship not linked to the responsible growth of youth-led social enterprises will not be considered for this second call for proposals.

Social enterprises are typically a non-profit, trust, cooperative, or community-based organisation that combines its social or environmental mission with income-generating activities. These organisations use trading or service delivery to generate revenue, which is then reinvested into their projects and community impact, helping them reduce reliance on donor funding while expanding sustainability.

Key features of social enterprises:

  • Social/environmental goals drive all activities (mission-first).
  • Runs enterprise/trading activities.
  • Surpluses are reinvested into the mission (not taken by shareholders).

You run a trading arm or enterprise with income that supplements donor support and contributes to financial sustainability of the organisation. All or most surpluses are reinvested into the mission or scaling of the enterprise. No private shareholder payments of profit.

Activities can take many forms depending on the social enterprise venture that you wish to grow. In your proposal, describe the activities you plan to implement and explain how they are linked to your goals/objectives, and the involvement of young people.

There is no fixed formula: you are free to design activities in the way that best fits your project, as long as you show clearly how they contribute to the growth of your social enterprise.

While the Entrepreneurship Grants are broad in their focus, please note that the following types of organizations or activities are not considered eligible for this grant:

  • Purely for-profit SMEs whose social impact is incidental or token
  • NGOs that are entirely donor funded with no enterprise activities
  • Idea stage projects with no operational trading track record

Yes, of course! The information sessions are organised to help you with your application but are not mandatory.

No, all grants are 30,000 euro and cannot go below or above that.

We will award a total of 10 Entrepreneurship grants during the second Call for Proposals.

Your project will be funded for a duration of 12 months, from May 2026 to April 2027.

All applications for the entrepreneurship grants are due on 7th of January 2026 by 14.00 PM CAT / 15.00 PM EAT. Applications received later than the stated date and time will not be considered.

It is expected that the assessment process of applications will take around four months, therefore expect to hear from us in April/May 2026. An announcement will also be made on the Power2Voices platform for you to check your emails.

Requests for additional clarifications can be sent to the following email: action.lab@aueuyouth.com.

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This website has been prepared with the financial assistance of the European Commission. The views expressed herein are those of the consultants and therefore in no way reflects the official opinion of the European Commission.

Newsletter

Sign up to know about the programme’s opportunities and events.

Stay connected

Follow us and get involved!

This website has been prepared with the financial assistance of the European Commission. The views expressed herein are those of the consultants and therefore in no way reflects the official opinion of the European Commission.

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